It didn’t take too long for vendors at the former Redwood Swap Meet in West Valley City to find a new host site. In fact, they may have two to choose from going forward.

Since being displaced last December when the site of the Redwood Drive-In was closed and eventually demolished for a housing development, vendors have been looking for a new place to show their wares. Earlier this spring, they began setting up at Suami del 801, a warehouse style facility at 1055 W. Temple in Salt Lake City. Latin music plays in the building and the site hosts up to 300 vendors each Sunday and is working to open on Saturdays as well.

In the meantime, Cristian Carbujal Gutierrez, who has worked with many of the Redwood vendors in the past, wants to create an open-air swap meet in Grantsville. He was among the leaders opposed to West Valley City’s decision to close the drive-in when new owners purchased the property with plans to build single-family homes, townhomes and condominiums on the land at 3688 S. Redwood Road. The city council approved rezoning for the site last year.

That decision forced the vendors, many who are immigrants from Latin America, to find a new place for their products to be sold. On any given weekend over the past 20-plus years, hundreds of sellers and buyers came to the Redwood Road site for the meet. Carbujal Gutierrez spoke at the council meeting last October when the rezoning was approved, sharing their sentiment that it would mean not just a loss of the swap meet, but possible displacement of many of the vendors who might leave the city due to their loss of jobs and income.

One vendor the West Valley Journal spoke to in September was Juan Bastidas, who has been a vendor at the meet for years. He said it has been important to keep the meet, as it provides extra income to support his family, and he worries about how the closure will affect other families. 

“I fear that many vendors will go into bankruptcy,” he said. “They have mortgages, and if they don’t have that extra income, I don’t know what they’ll do. I understand that West Valley is growing and we need more houses, but we also need more businesses. It might be nice for them to make 300 families happy, but they’re going to cause hundreds more to be out of work and bankrupt. It doesn’t make sense, and it’s not fair.”

The rezone happened, so the dust is settling as vendors decide where the swap meet ends up next. Gutierrez would like to see the event remain open-air and use the new location as a chance to further educate vendors about managing their businesses, including how to get licenses. He is hopeful a location in Grantsville can be up and running by mid-May (after our
publication date).λ